Control Validators and Withdraw ETH from the Beacon Chain

The ETH an stVault has staked sits on validators run by its Node Operator. This page covers what the Vault Owner can do about those validators: ask for an exit, pull ETH back from the Beacon Chain yourself, and stop new deposits.

There are two ways to get ETH back from validators:

• Requesting an exit is a signal to the Node Operator. It costs nothing and enforces nothing.
• Triggering a withdrawal goes to the Beacon Chain directly via EIP-7002. It works without the Node Operator, but it costs a fee and has restrictions.

Who can do what

Actor	Can	Permission
Vault Owner	Request a validator exit	REQUEST_VALIDATOR_EXIT_ROLE
Vault Owner	Trigger a partial withdrawal or a full exit	TRIGGER_VALIDATOR_WITHDRAWAL_ROLE
Vault Owner	Pause / resume deposits to validators	PAUSE_BEACON_CHAIN_DEPOSITS_ROLE / RESUME_BEACON_CHAIN_DEPOSITS_ROLE
Node Operator	Exit validators directly	the Node Operator address, non-delegable
stVaults Committee, Lido DAO	Force a full exit	only while the stVault has an obligations shortfall

All Vault Owner permissions above are held by the admin by default and can be delegated — see Roles and permissions.

Request a validator exit

The Vault Owner signals which validators should leave, and the Node Operator performs the exit.

warning

This does not exit anything by itself. It emits a ValidatorExitRequested event per key, and the Node Operator has to be watching for it and act. Whether and when they do is an off-chain matter between you and them — the protocol does not enforce it.

using Command-line Interface

yarn start contracts dashboard write exit <dashboard_address> <validator_pubkey>

using Etherscan UI

1. Open Etherscan and navigate to the Dashboard contract — find its address on the Per-setup addresses page.
2. Call requestValidatorExit, passing the validator public keys concatenated into a single hex string (48 bytes each).

Trigger a validator withdrawal

This path pulls ETH from the Beacon Chain without involving the Node Operator, using EIP-7002 triggerable withdrawals. It comes in two flavours:

• Full exit — the validator leaves and its entire balance returns to the stVault. Pass an amount of 0.
• Partial withdrawal — only part of the balance returns. The amount is trimmed so that at least 32 ETH stays on the validator, otherwise it would be deactivated.

The withdrawn ETH lands on the stVault's Not Staked Balance. How long it takes depends on the Ethereum exit queue.

The fee

Every withdrawal request costs a fee per validator key, paid in the same transaction. It is set by the network and changes from block to block, so:

• estimate it with calculateValidatorWithdrawalFee(numberOfKeys) on the StakingVault contract;
• send a surplus, because the estimate is only accurate for the block it was made in;
• the exact amount is charged and the excess is refunded to the refund recipient given in the call.

warning

The fee can spike sharply when the withdrawal queue is congested. Whatever you send is the most you can pay: the actual fee is taken and the rest is refunded. So keep the surplus modest — a large one only raises that ceiling.

When partial withdrawals are blocked

Full exits always go through. Partial withdrawals are rejected when:

• the stVault has an obligations shortfall — anything it owes and cannot currently cover;
• the stVault is jailed;
• the oracle report is stale — see Apply oracle reports.

The first restriction is deliberate: an stVault that is behind on its obligations must not be able to occupy the consensus layer withdrawal queue and delay the forced exits needed to rebalance it.

using stVaults Web UI

1. Open the Validators page of your stVault.
2. Pick a validator and choose Withdraw to stVault.
3. Enter an amount for a partial withdrawal, or use Force exit validator to withdraw the entire balance.

The modal shows the amount available to withdraw and the estimated withdrawal fee. If the stVault is jailed, the partial option is disabled and the modal says so.

using Command-line Interface

yarn start contracts dashboard write trigger-validator-withdrawal \
  <dashboard_address> <pubkeys> <amounts> <refund_recipient>

Public keys and amounts are comma-separated lists of the same length. Amounts are in ETH, and 0 means a full exit. The CLI reads the current fee itself and attaches it to the transaction, so you do not pass it.

using Etherscan UI

1. Open Etherscan and navigate to the StakingVault contract — find its address on the Per-setup addresses page.
2. Call calculateValidatorWithdrawalFee, passing the number of keys, to estimate the fee.
3. Navigate to the Dashboard contract — find its address on the Per-setup addresses page.
4. Call triggerValidatorWithdrawals, passing the concatenated public keys, the amounts in Gwei (0 for a full exit), and the refund recipient address. Attach the fee, with a surplus, as the payable value.

Pause and resume deposits to validators

Pausing stops the Node Operator from depositing any more of the stVault balance into new validators. Existing validators are unaffected and keep running.

Useful before a withdrawal or a disconnection, or to stop the balance being staked further while the Vault Owner decides.

using stVaults Web UI

Open the stVault Settings and switch off deposits from the stVault balance to validators.

using Etherscan UI

1. Open Etherscan and navigate to the Dashboard contract — find its address on the Per-setup addresses page.
2. Call pauseBeaconChainDeposits or resumeBeaconChainDeposits.

Forced exit by the protocol

If the stVault falls behind on its obligations, the stVaults Committee and the Lido DAO can force its validators to exit, returning the ETH to the stVault so the position can be rebalanced.

The call reverts with ForcedValidatorExitNotAllowed unless the stVault has an obligations shortfall at the time, and it requires a fresh oracle report. Forced exits are always full exits.

An obligations shortfall means the stVault owes more than the liquid ETH on its balance can cover. What it owes is:

• the ETH needed to bring the Health Factor back above 100%, or the ETH needed to cover pending Lido redemptions — whichever of the two is larger;
• plus unsettled Lido fees, but only once they reach 1 ETH. Below that they are ignored.

If the stVault balance covers all of that, there is no shortfall and forced exits are not possible — even if the stVault is unhealthy.

Watch the Health Factor and act while it is still above 100% — see the Health monitoring guide and the Rebalance guide.